Georgia-Pacific, the company that makes Quilted Northern admitted that it has lopped off half an inch from their rolls, decreasing the width of the roll from 4.5 inches to 4 inches. But what about the third smaller roll? We measured it 3.5 inches.

A Georgia-Pacific spokesperson asked that we send them the roll so their R&D department could have a look. After a few weeks, I called to find out what they discovered.

Spokesperson Anna Umphress told me that the folks at Georgia-Pacific determined that our squatty roll was a fluke. They say a machine chops the individual rolls from one looong roll. The machine pulls the roll forward four inches and makes a cut. Umphress said her team believes the machine must have only pulled the roll forward 3.5 inches to make the roll our engineer found.

Georgia-Pacific says only one other customer called with a 3.5 inch roll.

Woellert is still a skeptic. I suspect she’ll be opening all of her toilet paper with a ruler from now on.

“Can you imagine how much money they could save by putting one 3.5 inch roll in every 10th package that comes off the line?” she asked.

Finished a couple-hour long shopping trip this afternoon… only to drop my just-purchased top sirloin from the grocery cart in the parking lot… where the back wheel of my cart wheeled right over it. Bummer! That was tomorrow night’s dinner.